Valentine’s Special: From Egypt with Love · Global Voices
Nermeen Edrees

It is this time of the year when you start to believe that life is practically all about flowers and chocolates. Single and couples, in favor of or against celebrating Valentine's Day are bound to indulge in the infamous February extravaganza. Like it or not, you are haunted with teddy bears, flowers, boxes, and fluffy red wraps all around you, not to mention your office mate who would drive you up the wall talking, thinking, and planning for the grand day.
While committed Egyptian bloggers were swamped in the preparations, others were scratching their head trying to come up with new ideas and ways to celebrate the universal love day.
In her post, Super Lili contemplated the possibility of speed dating in Cairo: She said:
“So i was thinking, why is there no speed dating in Cairo? It would be easy to organize, just get a venue, everyone pays 100 L.E., post an open event on Facebook and there you have it.”
She continues:
“Personally, i think it's a great idea! first off the ticket price would control a little who would come, you have 5 minutes to decide, so if you meet Mr. Creepy Creeperson you would only have to spend 5 minutes with them. You could decide to give guys your email account or Facebook account as a test first, or buy a new sim to receive the call(s) which you can throw out if you end up with a stalker.”
On the other hand Appy decided to broaden the context and invited her readers to join in a special event organized by  NGO “sohbet khier;” the event will be held in one of Egypt’s most known rural areas “Istabl Antar.”
Mohaly declared valentine blogging week  and ended his series with a singles agenda to take him/them through the day.
He says:
”After second thoughts, and instead of escaping, I told myself that it is Valentine's day, and singles have the right to enjoy it too, there is a brightside there for us …Whether you choose to have other single people over to celebrate by playing these one-of-a-kind singles games, or whether you prefer to soak in the glory of being single on your own, the goal is simply to make the Valentine's day on Saturday your day!
He then listed a few tips he came across online, and ended his post with his own pick for the day:
“PURSUE YOUR PASSION (Mohaly's choice): Whatever it is that you are passionate about in life — be it a particular hobby, travel, craft projects, charitable acts, etc. — use this day to make great strides by just doing that today. This is also known as drowning yourself in productivity… or pursuing those things that you are passionate about. As long as it's something you are completely driven to succeed at, then you will still be having FUN while accomplishing great things at the same time.”
Happy Valentine's Day; Hope the day bring each and everyone lots of, happiness, flowers, chocolates, and above all love and warmth.
Also on Global Voices Online:
On Valentine's: Teach Someone You Love to Blog (or Micro-Blog!)
Photo credit: Wikipedia